Political Quotes

“That is right, and I think some of the pictures that the gentleman will show later will be very obvious in what can happen to a healthy forest that is overgrown and weakened as a result of the closing canopy and weakened as a result of the overgrowth. I can tell my colleague that testimony I received up in a little town called Grangeville, Idaho, just last weekend, my colleague, Senator Craig from the Senate, who is from Idaho, joined me in that hearing, and we were told that in many cases there is as much as 80 tons per acre of fuel that has grown as a result of lack of harvest. We had a sustainable yield, sustainable harvest program for years; and when we got away from that and took a passive attitude toward the management of our forests, the watershed, the habitat, the result was that the forest continued to grow. It did not stop. The forest continued to grow; and as a result, we have had a tremendous overgrowth, and just as is the case with any species, we get them crowded in too close of an area and if one gets sick, they all get sick; and that is where we are with our forests.”